The Nilo-Saharan Language Family

Introduction

Nilo-Saharan man

Nilo-Saharan woman

Introduction

Afro-Asiatic
Nilo-Saharan
Niger-Congo
Khoisan
Austronesian

The Nilo-Saharan language family includes 204 extremely diverse languages. Scholars have argued for over 100 years about the best way to classify them. However, today, most of them accept the genetic unity of the Nilo-Saharan languages as proposed in 1963 by Joseph Greenberg, an American anthropologist and linguist.

Ethnologue follows Greenberg's classification by including the following branches of the Nilo-Saharan family. As you can see, the Central and Eastern Sudanic branches account for the majority of these languages (160).

Berta	1
Central Sudanic	65
Eastern Sudanic	95
Komuz	6
Kunama	1
Maban	9
Saharan	9
Songhai	8
Fur	3
Unclassified	7

Status
Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken in a number of countries across the African continent. Most of them have relatively small populations of speakers. Only five are spoken by one million or more people. The two most populous languages (each spoken by 3.5 million people ) are Luo of Kenya, and Kanuri of Nigeria.

Luo	3.5 million	Kenya
Kanuri	3.5 million	Nigeria
Kalenjin	2.5 million	Kenya
Dinka	1.3 million	Sudan
Lugbara	1 million	Uganda
Lango	977,680	Uganda
Masai	883,000	Kenya
Acholi	791,796	Uganda
Lendu	760,000	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ngambay	750,000	Chad
Mangbetu	620,000	Democratic Republic of the Congo
Aringa	588,830	Uganda
Bari	450,000	Sudan

A number of Nilo-Saharan languages became endangered in the 20th century because their speakers adopted other, more prestigious and more widely used languages such as Arabic and Swahili. This is particularly true of languages spoken by fewer than 1,000 speakers. Increased mobility, urbanization, and political upheavals have also contributed to the decline of some Nilo-Saharan languages. Nevertheless, most of them continue to serve as vital means of oral communication for millions of people.

Today, the governments of African states are making an attempt to integrate indigenous Nilo-Saharan languages into their educational systems, usually along with official European languages, e.g., English (in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda) or French (Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, and Congo) and national languages, e.g., Swahili (in Kenya) and Amharic (in Ethiopia). For instance, in Kenya, Luo and Masai are taught in primary schools along with English and Swahili. In Eritrea, Kunama and Nara are taught in primary schools along with Afaan-Oromo and Amharic.

Nilo-Saharan child

Nilo-Saharan woman

Structure

Sound System

Nilo-Saharan man

Nilo-Saharan woman and child

Nilo-Saharan woman

Sound system
Nilo-Saharan languages are as linguistically diverse as they are geographically spread. As a result of long-term extensive contact and borrowing, they often share phonological features with neighboring unrelated languages. For instance, some Nilo-Saharan languages have consonant systems that are similar to those of the Niger-Congo languages, while other share common features with Afro-Asiatic languages.

Vowels
The vowel systems of Nilo-Saharan languages are extremely complex. In addition to a large number of vowels, most of the languages have additional vowel features that make a difference in word meaning. Among them are the following:

vowel length
The duration of vowels can range from short to long. Dinka, for example, has three distinct vowel lengths.
breathiness (breathy voice)
These sounds are produced with the vocal folds vibrating as in normal voicing, but the glottal closure is incomplete, so that the voicing is somewhat inefficient and air continues to leak between the vocal folds throughout the vibration cycle with an audible friction noise.
creakiness (creaky voice)
This is a special kind of articulation in which the vocal cords are tightly shut, resulting in low frequency of the vibration (about two octaves below normal voice) and in slow airflow through the glottis.
advanced tongue root (ATR)
Advanced tongue root refers to the feature of a sound made by drawing the root of the tongue forward. This feature distinguishes between tense vowels as [+ ATR] and lax vowels as [- ATR]
vowel harmony
This feature means that all vowels in a word must belong to a certain set, each consisting of five vowels. One set is [+ATR], the other is [-ATR]. In Dinka, for instance, all vowels in a word must be either breathy or creaky.

Consonants
The consonantal systems of Nilo-Saharan languages often show similarities with those of neighboring Afro-Asiatic and Niger-Congo languages as a result of extensive contact that had resulted in borrowing of vocabulary and stable bilingualism. For instance, some Nilo-Saharan languages have complex consonant systems featuring ejective and implosive consonants that are typical of Afro-Asiatic languages, while others have relatively simple consonant systems that typify Niger-Congo languages.

Tones
Like the Niger-Congo languages, most of the Nilo-Saharan languages are tonal, i.e., they use relative pitch on syllables or words to distinguish meaning. The number of tones varies from language to language. For instance, Dinka has two level and three contour tones (high falling, low falling, and rising), while Lugbara has four tones. Tones are not always indicated in writing. When they are, accent marks are used.

Grammar

Nilo-Saharan hut

Nilo-Saharan languages share a number of grammatical features tha speak of their common origin. Not all these grammatical features are present in all languages.

Noun phrase
Nouns in Nilo-Saharan languages are marked for case (nominative, absolutive, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental, and associative) by means of suffixes or tones. Not all of these cases are present in all languages. Gender marking is present in some, but not all, Nilo-Saharan languages. Number marking is present in most languages, e.g., in Bari, the word bari means "people" whereas bari-nit means "person".

Verb phrase
Nilo-Saharan verbs are quite complex. They are marked for person, number, tense, aspect, mood, and voice. There are also special markers for negative, causative, and dative constructions. Verb endings are often similar across languages.

Word order
Word order varies from language to language. In some languages it is Verb-Subject-Object, in others, it is Subject-Verb-Object. Some Nilo-Saharan languages have relatively free word order.

Vocabulary

Nilo-Saharan languages share a large number of lexical roots that point to their common ancestry. Yet there are significant differences in even the most basic vocabulary, such as numbers. Take a look at the numerals in twelve different Nilo-Saharan languages to see if you can find any similarities.

Writing

Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero Wi Lobo

Lak Tar Miyo Kinyero Wi Lobo

Nilo-Saharan languages have traditionally been used for oral communication. As such, they have no written historical records and no literary tradition. An exception is the Old Nubian script, which is thought to have been used in the 8th-11th centuries by Christian communities in Egypt. This script was derived from the Coptic script. Its use declined after the spread of Islam.

Some Nubian languages, e.g., Kenuzi-Dongola spoken in Sudan and Egypt, are presently written in either the Latin or the Arabic script.
A number of Nilo-Saharan languages spoken in Ethiopia are written with the Amharic script.
Most other orthographies for Nilo-Saharan languages are based on the Latin script because they were developed by European missionaries who tried to adapt it to represent sounds that don't exist in European languages. In many cases, these orthographies do a poor job of representing the spoken language, in addition to being cumbersome and inconsistent. As a result, speakers of some languages prefer to read in another language, rather than their own.

Fortunately, some of these languages have a rich and vibrant literature, especially Luo and Acholi. The Ugandan poet, novelist and social anthropologist Okot p'Bitek was one of the first writers in Africa to write in his native language (Acholi) rather than in English or French.

Numbers in 12 Nilo-Saharan Languages

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Berta	muungh'ú	móolang	múuthe			mak' eera	thabóo lang	thabó ore	thabáa námu	mathu uma
Dinka	tok	róu	dyak	'nguan	wdyech	wdetem	wderóu	bêt	wde-nguan	wtyer
Fur	tok	awu	iis	ongal	oz	ozundik	saabi	taman	tise	weye
Lugbara	àlö	ïrrì	nna	ssu	tääù	azia		ààrò	òòròmì	möödrí
Luo	achiel	ariyo	adek	angwen	abich	auchiel	abiriyo	aboro	ongachiel	apar
Acholi	acel	aryo	adek	angwen	abic	abicel	abiryo	aboro	abungwen	apar
Masai	obo	aare	okuni	oonguan	imiet	ile	oopishana	isiet	oondo	tomon
Bari	geleng	murek	musala	ingwan	mukanat	buker	buyo	budök	bungwan	pwök
Songhai	fo	hinka	hinja	taaci	gu	iddu	iyye	yaaha	yagga	woy
Kanuri	tilo	ndi			uwu		tulur	wusku		mewu
Lendu	atdí	oyo			imbo	aza
Mangbetu	kana	sóórú	sóta	sósua	tózerena		tónóru	'bógina	'tébgelégí	'tééké

Take a look at Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kanuri. Can you recognize any words in it?

Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Resources

Resources for the study of Nilo-Saharan languages and cultures
UCLA Language Materials Listing for the Less Commonly Taught Languages
University of Minnesota Less Commonly Taught Languages Database